Project Details
Projekt
3D field campaigns, HOPE + Lindenberg 2026 + new campaign with MTG
Subject Area
Atmospheric Science
Term
since 2024
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 513446258
This project is part of the research unit "Cloud Structure & Climate - Closing the 3D Gap" and fosters for the synergy of high-resolution modelling and observations of clouds and their radiative effects by fully accounting for the 3D nature of cloud structure and radiative transfer in order to provide a physically-based correction of biases in climate modelling and satellite-based cloud remote sensing. Project P5 brings all activities from the individual projects P1-P4 together by combining high-resolution 3D cloud modelling with ground- and satellite-based observations of clouds and radiation. Vertical profiles of macro- and microphysical cloud properties will be initially compiled from ground-based remote sensing observations collected during the HOPE campaigns. The profiles will be compared to the corresponding modelled cloud fields. These preparations and first radiation closure studies will provide valuable input for the design of an intensive observation period to be conducted at the DWD Lindenberg Observatory during a period of three months in summer 2026. The field campaign will benefit from the availability of the newest generation of satellite-based measurements from Meteosat Third Generation and EarthCARE, which will offer unprecedented capabilities in the observation of cloud evolution and measurements of the 3D cloud fields and their corresponding radiative effects at the top of the atmosphere. The routine ground-based monitoring programme of DWD at Lindenberg comprising cloud radars, ceilometers, microwave radiometers, a Raman Lidar, radiosounding, an infrared hemispherical sky imager, and short- and longwave radiometers will be complemented by a small-scale pyranometer network from TROPOS to better capture the spatial variability of the solar irradiance at the surface. In addition, novel in-situ observational techniques from the Leibniz University Hannover to measure spectrally and temporally highly resolved radiance will be used during the campaign. By combining high-resolved modelled, reconstructed and observed radiation and cloud data a unique data set of cloud properties, irradiance and radiance at the surface and top of the atmosphere will be compiled. This dataset will then be used for comprehensive cloud regime-based radiation closure experiments with 1D and 3D radiative transfer models to reproduce the observed spatiotemporal statistical properties of spectral irradiance and spectral radiance at the surface and at the top of the atmosphere, to study the 3D short- and longwave effect of clouds and to provide a correction of biases in climate modelling and satellite-based cloud remote sensing.
DFG Programme
Research Units
Subproject of
FOR 5626:
Cloud Structure & Climate - Closing the 3D Gap
